Credit Cards with Fat Rewards

By Sun

A couple of days ago CNNMoney has an article with a list of seven credit cards that give cardholders generous rewards (well, that’s just relative to the 1% reward that I can pretty much get from any card). Out of the seven cards mentioned in the article, I own two of them, Discover Miles card and Chase Freedom card that I got recently, but none of them is my day-to-day card. I am still using my Fidelity 529 Rewards card for most of the purchases.

If you are interested in getting a new card with good rewards, then the cards from the CNNMoney article can make good candidates. Following are a summary of the key benefits of each card mentioned in the article.

American Express Blue Cash Card

I used to have the Blue card, but closed it because I didn’t like the reward thresholds. I’d rather get a flat 2% cash back than having to meet certain thresholds to get a higher cash back rate. However, if you do charge a lot on the card, you could earn some decent rebates. Ben at Money Smart Life just received a $330 annual rebate. Key features of the Blue Cash card include:

No annual fee;

1% rebate for the first $6,500;

After $6,500, 5% rebate on purchases made at supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores and 1.5% on all other purchases.

Discover More Card

It seems to me that the Discover More Card covers most of features of the Open Road card listed below, expect that the Open Road card also gives back 3% on auto repairs. The 5% cashback on restaurants is the highest rebate rate as far as I know (I use AMEX TrueEarnings card to get 3% rebate at restaurants). The More cards offers:

No annual fee;

0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months;

5% cashback on travel, apparel, home, gas, restaurants, and movies;

5% to 20% cashback for purchases made through Discover online shopping site, up to 1% cashback on all other purchases;

Unlimited cash rewards with no expiration date.

Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum Select MasterCard

The 6% rebates is sure very generous, though it only lasts for one year. After the first 12 months, you can still earn a 3% rebates which is better than most of the rewards cards. Best of all, this card is a great choice if you drive a lot. Jonathan at My Money Blog earned $520 rebate with this card in less than a year. Benefits of Driver’s Edge card include:

No annual fee;

0.00% APR on balance transfers for 12 months;

Up to 6% rebates on the purchases made at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations for 12 months, 3% thereafter, 1% on all other purchases;

$1 for every 100 miles you drive – up to $1,000 every 12 months.

Discover Open Road Card

This used to be Discover’s Gas card. As gas price keeps rising, we have seen credit card companies scaled back rebates on gas purchases, but the Open Road card is one that still offers 5% cashback, plus the same rate of cashback for auto maintenance (I should have got this card before sending my car to the dealer for a major maintenance work early this week). No bad when a gallon of gas is costing you more than $3. With this card, you will get:

No annual fee;

0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months;

5% cashback on gas and everyday auto maintenance purchases and up to 1% on everything else;

5% to 20% cashback for purchases made through Discover online shopping site, up to 1% cashback on all other purchases;

Unlimited cash rewards with no expiration date.

Discover Miles Card

I got the Discover Miles card last year for the 0% APR balance transfer (without fees). Other than that, I didn’t find this card more attractive than other travel reward cards. I probably will drop this card after the 0% BT expires. I will use my Citi PremierPass card for travel related purchase. What Discover Miles card offers include (here’s an update of the rewards program):

No annual fee;

0% APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers;

Get up to 12,000 Bonus Miles for first year and 1,000 Bonus Miles every month with a purchase.

Double Miles on up to $3,000 in travel and restaurant purchases

1 Mile for every $1 spend

Unlimited Miles that never expire

CapitalOne No Hassle Miles Card

I don’t like CapitalOne that much, especially am annoyed by their “What’s in your wallet?” commercial (you can be sure CapitalOne is not in MY wallet). But their 1.25 miles per dollar reward on purchases seems to be better than other miles rewards programs which usually give 1 mile per dollar.

No annual fee

No balance transfer fee

Earn 1.25 miles for each dollar spent on purchases

Miles never expires

Fly free with as few as 15,000 miles

No limit on the miles

Chase Freedom Card

The Chase Freedom card is the latest card I got and I am increasing my use of this card because of its higher rebates on grocery items and gas purchase than the Fidelity 529 Rewards card’s 2% rebate. One drawback of the Freedom card is that if you spend more than $600 in one billing cycle at grocery stores or gas stations, you are only going to earn 1% cashback for whatever you spend over the $600 limit.

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3 Responses to “Credit Cards with Fat Rewards”

Yeah, that CapitalOne commercials have definitely become vary taxing on my sanity, but teh card seems to be pretty good compared to others that I have been offered. My only complaint with AmEx is the annual fees, I just don’t like that!

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